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West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has finally signed some defensive cover in the form of Napoli right-back Pablo Armero after striving to do so for much of the last month.
The Hammers had lost defender Joey O'Brien with a dislocated shoulder earlier this week, which is likely to rule him out until the end of the current Premier League season.
With the Hammers flailing in the lower sanctums of the division, Sam Allardyce was forced into entering the market.
The East London club wasted little time in agreeing a deal for Colombian Armero after making their interest known at the beginning of the week.
Napoli announced on social media that the transfer had gone through before Sky Sports News broke the news this afternoon.
The former Udinese man joins Roger Johnson in the new-look West Ham back-line.
What are the most bizarre transfer deadline day deals? Show all 10 1 /10The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Peter Odemwingie to QPR? One of the weirder stories of recent years. Odemwingie took it upon himself to drive to London from West Brom and spoke of his excitement about joining QPR. Unfortunately the Nigerian was to discover his club hadn't given him permission to speak to Harry Redknapp's side so Odemwingie suffered the indignity of being locked out of Loftus Road and sent back to the Hawthorns with his tail firmly between his legs.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Robinho's slip of the tongue Newly rich Man City might have been pipped to the signing of Dimitar Berbatov in 2008, but they had made a big statement by stealing Robinho from under Chelsea's noses. So I expect they were delighted when Robinho announced: "Chelsea made a great proposal on the last day and I accepted". When asked if he meant Manchester City, Robinho replied: "Yeah. Manchester. Sorry!"
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Ryan Babel's mystery flight Ryan Babel was spotted getting in a helicopter bound for London on deadline day in 2010 but where was he headed? No move ever materialised and the mystery continues to this day. Just where was the Babelcopter going?
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures How much? When Chelsea splashed £50m on Fernando Torres, in 2011, some felt they'd overpaid. Fortunately Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool were on hand to put things into perspective by immediately spending £35m of that money on Andy Carroll - a man with just a good half season of Premier League football behind him. Dalglish lost his job and Carroll is now at West Ham.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Julian Faubert to Real Madrid Arguably one of the strangest transfers of all time, in 2009 Real Madrid took Julian Faubert on loan from West Ham. To the surprise of no one it wasn't a success, Faubert made just two appearances and once fell asleep while on the bench during a game.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Arshavin arrival When that window slams shut (it always slams) trading ceases - unless you're Arsenal that is. The £15m arrival of Andrei Arshavin in 2009 had Gooners waiting for confirmation a full 24 hours after Big Ben had struck midnight. There was some excuse about adverse weather conditions, but that didn't stop Arsenal's Premier League rivals from raising an eyebrow or two.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures David Beckham joins PSG While any criticism of Sir David of course borders on sacrilege, and Beckham's decision to give all his wages from the club to a children's charity is to be applauded, the fact that he chose to make the move on deadline day when as a free agent he could move whenever he liked, did seem quite a lot like attention-seeking.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Benjani's airport nap Sounding more like the badly thought through excuse of a schoolboy than a reason that almost scuppered a transfer, Benjani wrote his way into deadline day folklore in 2008. Flying from Portsmouth to Manchester to finalise a move to City, the striker rather unfortunately fell asleep in the airport, missing two planes and nearly ruining his chances of a move. In the end Man City fans must have wished he had.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Samba time Nothing sums up the mad decisions made by desperate clubs during the January window than the signing of Chris Samba by QPR. The relegation threatened club forked out an incredible £12.5m to bring in the former Blackburn centre-back to save their season - and also agreed to pay him £100,000 a week. Turned out he wasn't much help, at one stage even having to apologise for being at fault for two goals in the west-London derby defeat to Fulham. QPR were relegated and Samba returned to Anzhi Makhachkala.
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The strangest transfer deadline day stories - in pictures Alan Pardew's lucky day Bizarrely and seemingly with a whiff of something shady, 2006 saw Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano arrive at West Ham looking more than a little confused. In the end the third party deal was ruled illegal and West Ham had to pay a £5.5m fine and £20m compensation to Sheffield United who were relegated when Tevez's goals kept West Ham in the league later that season.
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